Improvement in manufacture of steel



UNITE "IA'IE S 'rnn'r Qr'ruon- OGDEN BOLTON, OF CANTON, OHIO.

iMPROVEIVlENT IN MANUFACTURE OF STEEL.

Speciiicutioni'ormmg part of Letters Patent No. 214,088, dated April 8, 1879; application filed November 12, 1878.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, OGDEN BOLTON, of Canton, in the county of Stark and StflilttnOf Ohio, have invented a new and usefuh-Improvemeut in the Manufacture of Steel; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to a new method of manufacturing steel in what is commonly known as the open hearth -that is to say, in a Siemens or equivalent furnace-aud has for its principal object the production of high grades of steel, suitable for tools, &e., for which the more expensiye crucible steel is 110\ necessarily used.

The method heretofore adopted in making steel in the ope'n'hearth, when using iron blooms, iron sponge, steel, or scraps, is to start with a east-metal hath, made with either pig-iron or spiegeleisen, to which the wroughtiron blooms, scrap, &c., are added to decarburize, and finally spiegeleisen or ferro-mauganese to reear'burize; but by said method it has heretofore been impossible to produce high grades of steel or to compete with good Euglish tool-steel.

I will now proceed to describe my inven tion, so that others skilled in the art to which its. ertainsmava )1 the same.

.steel into a ladle or equivalent vessel and add thereto spicgeleisen or term-manganese.

In practice I have found the following quantitles of carbon, iron, like, to produce good tool-steel, and therefore recite the same, but do not expect or intend to be limit-ed theretog. I take three hundred and fifty (350) pounds of carbon and pack it in wooden boxes, preferably about four feet long, one i'ootwide. and

one foot deep. These boxes so filledI charge into the furnace, placing them at the lowest or deepest part of the furnace, and on top thereof I charge eleven thousand pounds (11,000) (onehalf ton, more or less) of iron blooms. When the iron is all melted, I take out a sample and usually find the percentage of carbon to be about 1.50 per cent; and if the percentage of carbon is higher than I desire, I add more iron blooms to the bath until a proper test shows the percentage of carbon in the bath to be .05 per cent. higher than I require in the finished steel. I then tap the steel into the ladle, and as the steel is running out of the furnace I A d about one per cent. of form-manganese, allowing the lumps (if not previously melted) to drop into the running stream of steel, thus getting a thorough mixture.

It is not absolutely necessary to add the per cent. of form-manganese specified, as I find that I can run the steel made by the described process with but a trace of ferro-manganese,

u or practically none at all, and the less t'erro manganese isused the finer will be the steel.

In lieu of packing the carbon in boxes or canisters, it may be compressed or otherwise formed into a solid mass, or in some cases, though not.by preference, it may be charged loosely or in powdered form.

Steel made as specified will be found equal to good English tool-steel, and has been used successfully in the manufacture of nailcrs knives, lathe-too1 s, blaeksmiths tools, oil-well tools, and taps and dies.

For the commoner grades of steel cheap blooms can be used; and in making lower car hon-steel so much carbon will not be required to commence with, as 1.5 per cent. of carbon at the start will give about one percent. in the steel.

I am aware that in the manufacture of steel by the crucible process blooms have been reduced to shavings orsmall pieces and put in the meltiugpot, together with carbonaceous materjal and a flux oi lime, the whole being melted and poured as in manufacturing steel ,l'rom bar-iron, and do not :hereiu claim the sunny: bill,

Having thus described nry invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 18-

1. The method herein described for the mam ufaoture of steel by the open-hearth process, the same consisting in first charging the carbon on the bottom of the open hearth, and chargingthe blooms, iron sponge, or soft steel, or any part of them on top of the carbonawens matter previous to fusion, substantially he and for the purpose specified.

2. In the manufacture of steel by the open hearth process, first charging the carbon so] idified or packed in boxes or canisters on the bottom of the openhearth, and then charging the blooms iron sponge, or soft steel thereon, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

OGDEN BOLTON.

Witnesses:

ELI WAGNER, REGINALD Ii. BULLRY. 

